What is the Equality Act?

A new Equality Act came into force on 1 October 2010. The Equality Act brings together over 116 separate pieces of legislation into one single Act. Combined, they make up a new Act that provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.

The Act simplifies, strengthens and harmonises the current legislation to provide Britain with a new discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.

Progress

There are further elements in the Act that did not come into force in October 2010, but may do in the future. We await updates from the Government on these developments. Examples are:

Duty to make reasonable adjustments to common parts of leasehold and commonhold premises and common parts in Scotland

Provisions relating to auxiliary aids in schools

Diversity reporting by political parties

Provisions about taxi accessibility

Prohibition on age discrimination in services and public functions

Civil partnerships on religious premises

Elements of the Act that will not be coming into force:

Dual discrimination: the government has decided not to bring this into force as a way of reducing the cost of regulation to business.

Socio-economic inequalities under the Public Sector Equality Duty

Gender pay gap information (s78). The Government has said that it will not implement the gender pay reporting measures in section 78 of the Act while it is working with business on how to best support increased transparency on a voluntary basis. The Government will annually review this approach, in order to assess whether this approach is successful and take a view over time whether alternatives are required, including using a mandatory approach through section 78 of the Equality Act.

Equality Act Guidance

We have published guidance to help employers, workers, service providers, service users and education providers understand the Equality Act.